UNH - Stock Market News: UnitedHealth Makes a Buy; Chevron Loses Energy
Major benchmarks stayed pretty close to unchanged on Monday morning, hanging on to their substantial gains on Friday. Optimism about the November employment report continued to make market participants happy about the likelihood for continued gains in stocks going through the end of the year. As of 11:30 a.m. EST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI) was down 54 points to 27,961. The S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) fell 1 point to 3,145, and the Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQINDEX: ^IXIC) fell 1 points to 8,656.
There was a lot of action on the merger and acquisition front Monday, and UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) looks like it might have picked up a sweet deal. Meanwhile, Chevron (NYSE: CVX) got some criticism about its overall corporate strategy, but shareholders didn't panic about the news.
Shares of UnitedHealth Group were down a fraction of a percent after the health insurance and wellness giant said that it would make an acquisition. The company's OptumRx pharmacy business has made a bid to buy Diplomat Pharmacy (NYSE: DPLO) in response to a difficult situation at Diplomat.